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Kessler
" Death and destruction on an unimaginable scale. As he released me, I knew he was responsible for all of it. " - Cole MacGrath "I've always been there Cole, every step of your life" - Kessler SPOILER ALERT Kessler is the main antagonist in the video game inFamous. His name is actually an alias. He is actually the future version of Cole MacGrath. He is at least 110 years old. History In the original timeline, Cole MacGrath lived in a world where there is peace in Empire City, he is still friends with Zeke, and he is married to his beloved wife Trish. However, a Conduit of impossible strength, known as the Beast, attacked Empire City and the rest of the world. Cole, who had also attained electrokinetic powers in this timeline, may have been able to stop the Beast, but feared for the lives of his loved ones in the consequential crossfire. Instead, he fled with his family while the Beast destroyed everything. Unfortunately, after years of fleeing confrontation with the creature, Cole finds there is nowhere left to run. His family is killed by the Beast, who had then become so powerful that no force on Earth could stop him. Enraged and despairing, Cole utilizes his most dangerous power: an electromagnetic timewarp. He goes back to the past, and, adopting the name "Kessler", started a chain of events that would ensure his own younger self would not make the same mistake. In the timeline of inFamous, he became the leader of the First Sons, a secret society dedicated to unlocking special abilities such as psychokinesis and electrokinesis in the common man's mind. Kessler took over in a coup that left Alden Tate, son of founder Richard Tate, living alone on the street. In this position he would use his knowledge of the future to speed up the development of First Son technology and research, and would use the resources of the Sons to put the Cole MacGrath of this time period through a series of trials that he believed would enable him to stop the Beast from destroying the world. First, he arranged the activation of the Ray Sphere, which caused Cole to attain his powers years earlier than he did in the original timeline, which would hopefully make him more powerful and practiced by the time the Beast entered the world. Next, Kessler felt that his emotions had tied him down; his fear of his family suffering injury preventing him from doing the right thing. So for the good of the world, he kills Trish to prevent that family from ever existing in the first place. Kessler forces Cole to choose to save the lives of either Trish or six innocent doctors. Kessler emphasizes that the doctors could potentially save thousands of lives, therefore making it the "right" choice. In either scenario, Trish is killed and Cole is left to mourn for her. It can be inferred that Kessler knew exactly which choice Cole would make, and arranged things so that Trish would die. After putting his past self through hell, Kessler met up with Cole at Ground Zero to battle. During the battle, Kessler demonstrated a wide variety of previously unseen superpowers, easily dispatching both Cole and Zeke. He constantly taunted Cole about his parents' shame over his disappointing slacker lifestyle and Trish's death. Cole, enraged and motivated, managed to gain the upper hand in the battle, finishing Kessler with a strike of lightning. As Cole stood over the dying Kessler, he begged for Trish's forgiveness and used his last ounce of strength to grab Cole and use his powers to explain his actions telepathically. He then collapsed and succumbed to his mortal wounds. Behavior Based on John's audio recordings of Kessler during his research on the Ray Sphere, it would seem that he is a man with sophisticated background in science from his time. This would explain his successful takeover of the First Sons' leadership. Physically, Kessler seems very old and his right arm and chest have been replaced with machinery with lights placed on them. inFamous 2 Though Kessler is not currently set to appear (in some form) in Infamous 2, his actions directly influence the plot. Because of Kessler's meddling in the past to prepare Cole, the timeline is disrupted, causing the Beast to appear years earlier than Kessler had anticipated, forcing Cole to travel to New Marais to further his powers. Powers As a future version of Cole, he is also an electrokinetic Conduit. But, unlike Cole, his powers are fully developed and thus much more powerful. Unlike Cole, whose electricity is either bright blue/white or Black/red, his is white in color, a possible reference of his old age. His lightning bolt, instead of a small, not so powerful bolt of electricity, is a very large and powerful array of many lightning bolts, much more powerful than Cole's version. Also rather than charging up kinetic energy by dropping from heights for his thunder drop, Kessler simply has to punch the ground to create a much more powerful thunder drop related move than Cole is capable of. He can also create many shock grenades at once, but his are much more condensed, and thus can create a greater blast. As an even further evolution of Cole's incredible electricity-based healing factor, Kessler is shown as nearly untouchable by conventional weaponry, not even flinching when shot by Zeke. He also has powers Cole hasn't developed yet, like the ability to move at extremely high speeds. He teleports by making his body become electricity and 'strike' from place to place like a lightning bolt. This can also be used as an evasive tactic, making him extremely difficult to hit. (This could be seen as an evolution of Cole's Static Thrusters, though this has yet to be proven) Kessler can also create electric doppelgangers of himself, those being somewhat larger than himself and made out of electricity. These dopplegangers resemble the Aura Conduit, but can be hit at anywhere inside their outlines. Another one of his abilities is to transfer his memory to others: an evolution of Cole's ability to use the electrical pulses of the brains of people when he touches their heads to read their minds and memories, even when that person is dead. He also, at some point, gained the ability to use his electricity to rip a hole through time and bring himself to the past. Though he could only use this power one time, and it is unknown if he could control which time he would be sent to. He also seems to be able to infinitely generate electricity for his powers, as Cole can do, but only temporarily. He is also able to create attack Drones used by the First Sons with electricity, as seen in his fight with Cole. Weakness Kessler's only real weakness, besides possibly Cole's own weakness towards water, is his advanced age; he could not maintain use of his powers for extended periods of time and had to stop and take a few breaths every so often. The fact that Cole didn't have this weakness, due to his youth and agility, was the key to his victory over his older, much more powerful self. Age Since Alden was ejected from the First Sons when he was a kid while Kessler was an adult, and because Alden is an old man now (around 60 or 70), then Kessler is around 110. This would mean that his powers also extend his lifespan, most likely due to electrical pulses keeping his internal organs running longer than an average human as well as his cybernetic enhancements. Hero or villain? Kessler could be labeled as evil, for murdering Trish and turning Zeke against Cole, but he could also be seen as a hero, for everything he does. Although it is murderous and evil, all for what he perceived as the greater good. Of course, it can be argued that Kessler never fully took responsiblility in his failure to protect his family, which, if he had confronted the Beast before its power exceeded his own instead of constantly eluding it, their deaths could have been avoided. When he killed Trish, he was hoping Cole would choose to save the doctors and do the right thing. Conversely, if Cole chooses to spare innocent lives and destroy the Ray Sphere instead of activating it again, Kessler berates him, as he wants Cole to be as powerful as possible for the inevitable confrontation with the Beast. However, he did not foresee the possibility that his actions could potentially drive Cole into becoming a malevolent being akin to the Beast (as his Negative Karma ending indicates). In addition, it is revealed by the creators that, in Infamous 2, Kessler's meddling in the present timeline has accelerated the situation to the worst possible scenario, where the Beast confronts Cole years before it was originally meant to surface. Trivia *He is the first character heard, and the second character seen in the game (he can be seen standing in the parking garage when the people in the helicopter are yelling at Cole to get out). *During the fight against Kessler, when having to press the X button rapidly to defeat him for the first time, he shocks you with a lightning color depending on your Karma, blue for Good, red for Evil without reactivating the Ray Sphere, and black and red for Evil with activating the Ray Sphere. *Kessler is the only gang leader to die at Cole's hands (Sasha was captured by the First Sons and Alden managed to escape Cole by jumping off a bridge). *Kessler is the only boss with a health meter. Probably so that players actually know that they're hurting Kessler. *The time travel Kessler made would, in theoretical reality, cause the "real" Kessler (himself before timetravel) to die, as with the original Beast and the humanity in real timeline, making the Kessler appearing in inFamous a new but identical copy of the "real" Kessler. But this does not have any affect on protoganist Cole MacGrath. In another perspective, Kessler is already dead and the new one is a copy of him - making Cole the "real" Kessler. *It is unknown if Kessler had fully developed his powers by the time that he wanted to go back in time. But, if he did, even with all his immense maxed-out powers, he is still incapable of defeating The Beast, showing how strong the character is. Quotes *I know what Trish means to you, Cole. How much you love her. But we all have our part to play, even her. *(Kessler’s attempt to anger Cole) Your mother is ashamed of you. She lies, tells people you’re a teacher. No one respects a bike messenger. *(Kessler’s attempt to anger Cole) Your old man carried a picture of Trish in his wallet, telling people she was the daughter he never had. Did you know that? He couldn’t wait for you to marry her. *(Attacking Zeke) This doesn't concern you, fat man! * What separates the strong from the weak is the ability to take the beating. Hell, to love the beating, no matter how great the pain. * (Talking to Cole during The Truth) I've always been there Cole, every step of your life. * (after the blast) Activation plus six minutes, pulse is 45, repiration 10... looking good, Cole. Category:Characters Category:InFamous Characters Category:Conduits Category:Enemies Category:Bosses